Pending -- Enbridge Line 3 -- April 23, 2018

Updates

Later, 5:35 p.m. Minnesota time:

https://mobile.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/04/23/us/ap-us-enbridge-energy-line-3-the-latest.html

MINNEAPOLIS — The Latest on Enbridge Energy's proposed Line 3 replacement (all times local): 5:15 p.m.

An administrative law judge says Minnesota regulators should approve Enbridge Energy's proposal for replacing its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline only if it follows the existing route rather than the company's preferred route.  

Administrative Law Judge Ann O'Reilly recommended Monday that the Public Utilities Commission choose the existing route, which avoids sensitive areas in the Mississippi River headwaters region where American Indians harvest wild rice and hold treaty rights. The proposal has drawn opposition because the line would carry Canadian tar sands crude.  

The commission is expected to make its final decision in June. 

The graphic at this post appears to show the existing route and Enbridge's preferred route. 

Later, 5:07 p.m. Minnesota time: the ruling has still not been released as far as I can tell (google: today's news on enbridge line 3).

Later, 3:39 p.m. Minnesota time: the ruling has still not been released as far as I can tell (google: today's news on enbridge line 3).

Original Post 

Link here.

With the future of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project still in limbo, another major pipeline project is awaiting a do-or-die decision by regulators in Minnesota, with a key report on the future of Enbridge's Line 3 expected today.

The federal cabinet gave the green light to both Trans Mountain and Line 3 — the largest project in the history of Enbridge — on the same day in November 2016. And while work on Line 3 has already started on the Canadian side of the border, the regulatory agency tasked with approving construction through Minnesota has so far held off granting necessary permissions amid intense local opposition.

If Enbridge fails to secure a state permit and route approval, Line 3 could join the list of other major natural resources projects approved by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that have failed to launch.

Enbridge hopes to replace the entire span of the aging pipeline, which carries oil from a terminal near Hardisty, Alberta, through northern Minnesota to Superior, WI, where it travels on to U.S. refineries for upgrading.

My hunch: the court will find that more "information" is needed from one party or the other, or that some agency failed to consider all aspects. I'm sure there is at least one indigenous group in Florida that was not consulted.

With so much "intense opposition," there's no way any judge could approve this request. Especially since it does not benefit Minnesota, as far as I can tell.